KOW

OPENING TODAY: ANNA EHRENSTEIN & HIWA K at KYIV BIENNIAL — A Bird That Cannot Land
11.06–13.09.2026

The Kyiv Biennial is a nomadic, international project that interweaves artistic, political, and social issues. A Bird That Cannot Land, its chapter at KW, takes shape as an extensive live and discursive program and a large-scale exhibition spanning the entire building, contributing to the biennial’s reflections through contemporary art, sound, and exchange.

PUBLIC PROGRAMME:

FRIDAY, JUN 12 at 7 PM

FROM HERE TO THERE: PRACTICE, DISTANCE AND SELF-POSITIONING
Talk with Julia Ciamafiejeva and Farahnaz Sharifi
Moderated by Azar Mahmoudian

The panel brings together artists and authors to reflect on personal experiences of resettlement and the continuation of artistic practice across changing contexts. Rather than approaching the topic abstractly, the discussion centres on lived experience: how relocation is perceived, processed, and translated into creative work.

SUNDAY, JUN 14 at 6 PM

THE CLOUD IS STILL BALKANIZED
Performance with Yara Mekawei

During the Kyiv Biennial, Anna Ehrenstein will host a hybrid lecture-performance combining video, sound, and hypnotic techniques with Yara Mekawei. Building on The 'Balkanization of the Cloud' (2022), one of Ehrenstein’s earlier works, the performance reflects on how nation-state logics continue to reassert themselves within supposedly borderless digital infrastructures.

KW Curatorial Team:
Sofie Krogh Christensen (Curator)
Linda Franken (Assistant Curator)
Radia Soukni (Exhibition Assistant)

If you are in Berlin, join us for the public events at KW Institute for Contemporary Art with Hiwa K and Anna Ehrenstein.
____
Images:
1) Lesia Vasylchenko, Night Without Shadows and Light Without Rippling of Waves, 2025, courtesy the artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

2) Hiwa K, Julia Ciamafiejeva & Farahnaz Sharifi, courtesy the artists and KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

3) Ehrenstein, Katragjini & Mizarahi, 2022, Nationstate As Instagram Influencer, video still, courtesy the artists and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, and KOW, Berlin.

CURRENTLY ON VIEW: ANNA BOGHIGUIAN 'Weaving Culture' at
Solo show
until 15.08.2026

Curated by Nairi Khatchadourian

Over the course of half a century, Anna Boghiguian has traveled across the four continents, weaving connections between microhistories and the ways in which material cultures are informed by constantly shifting human geographies, while
always drawing on mythologies that inhabit our imaginaries.

After her one-month residency with AHA collective, during which she visited carpet workshops, met with displaced women weavers from Nagorno-Karabagh, and traveled through southern Armenia to the border city of Meghri, a paper to carpet
translation process was initiated. Over the course of nine months, the displaced weavers, together with local dyers, translated 37 drawings created during the diasporic artist’s residency into a rich textile language, using local wool and more
than two hundred dyes. Bringing together displaced women weavers, including those formerly part of the renowned Artsakh Carpet workshop, the project has supported them in re-establishing their practice in Yerevan and in workshops across
nearby villages.

“It is a great opportunity to read what the weavers share about their lives and their experiences, their reactions to my work, and their experiences while weaving,
especially in terms of color”— Anna Boghuiguian.

When in Yerevan, swing by the National Gallery of Armenia to immerse yourself in Anna Boghiguian's threads. And stay tuned for the upcoming Artist Talk by Anna Boghiguian in July.


____
Images:

1,2,4,5,6) “Weaving culture. Anna Boghiguian” exhibition view, courtesy of the artist, AHA collective, and KOW, Berlin. Photo: Sevak Thomasians / AHA collective.

3) Anna Boghiguian, 'Trees Have a Memory', carpet cartoon designed by Artsakh Carpet, courtesy of the artist, AHA collective, and KOW, Berlin.

7) Anna Boghiguian and Nairi Khatchadourian along the Araks River Meghri, Armenia, July 2025, courtesy of the artist, AHA collective, and KOW, Berlin. Photo: Sevak Thomasians.

KOW𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞: CANDICE BREITZ IN CONVERSATION WITH JOANNA WARSZA
MAY 29, 6:30 PM

KOW is pleased to invite you to a conversation between and

On the occasion of Candice Breitz' current solo exhibition at KOW, 'HOT POTATO', the artist will exchange in dialogue with Joanna Warsza about her newest body of work presented in the gallery.

In the video series 'Dear Esther', Candice Breitz weaves exacting analysis of the political and cultural landscape of contemporary Germany with fever-dream imagery and anecdotal research, drawing an arc between fascisms of the past and fascization in the present. The first film in the series, 'Dear Esther (May 1943)', recalls a formative moment in Esther Bejarano’s early life, setting the tone for the ‘letters’ that follow. It is intended to be viewed along with the film that follows it in the series, 'Dear Esther (15 May 2020)'.

The video work 'Dear Esther' lasts 47 minutes. The gallery opens at 12 pm on Friday.

We kindly encourage you to join us to watch the film before the talk begins at 6:30 that day. Viewing the film after the talk will not be possible.

The conversation will be held in English.

Attendance is free.

_____

CANDICE BREITZ (born in Johannesburg, 1972) is a Berlin-based artist. Her moving image installations have been shown internationally.

JOANNA WARSZA is Hamburg’s city curator (Stadtkuratorin Hamburg). ‘A Song for Esther,’ a concert that has been conceived by Candice Breitz in homage to the late musician and anti-fascist activist Esther Bejarano, was originally commissioned by Warsza within a series of ‘Counter Monuments’ for Hamburg.

A Song for Esther will run at HAU in Berlin for two consecutive nights on 6 JUNE and 7 June.

Tickets are available via https://www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/
_____
Images:

Candice Breitz, 'Dear Esther', 2025, video stills, commissioned by steirischer herbst 2025, courtesy of the artist and KOW, Berlin.

ARTIST TALK: ANNA EHRENSTEIN IN CONVERSATION WITH ARIANA DONGUSberlin
MAY 03, 2–3 pm

The discussion builds on Ehrenstein's exhibition 'The Language of the Soil', which examines the infrastructures of AI and the working conditions on which they are based.

The project is based on ongoing research and collaborations with digital workers and practitioners, including Richard Mathenge, Mophat Okinyi, and Fasica Berhane, as well as other stakeholders in Nairobi and Cairo.

Instead of portraying AI as autonomous or immaterial, the conversation situates AI systems within existing work networks, colonial histories, extractive processes, and the global platform economy. Ehrenstein and Dongus also reflect on questions of authorship, the political dimensions of AI, and how artistic practice can engage with and challenge these structures.

The author and researcher Yaniya Lee will moderate the discussion.

Join and next Sunday, May 03, for the Artist Talk with Q&A at Fotografiska, Berlin.
____
Images:
1–6) Anna Ehrenstein – The Language of the Soil, Fotografiska Berlin, 2026 © Fotografiska

7) © Anna Ehrenstein & Ariana Dongus